Mobile telephones and other mobile communications devices (such as personal digital assistants, laptop computers, tablet computers, and the like) are carried by millions of consumers. Thus, attempts have been made to integrate payment applications with these mobile devices so that consumers can use them to purchase goods and/or services from merchants. Thus far, however, the available mobile device payment applications have not been widely accepted by merchants because some providers require the merchants to purchase and/or install specialized hardware and/or software in order for the applications to function. In addition, some available mobile payment solutions are not compatible with existing merchant inventory and/or merchant payment systems, requiring merchants to perform a complicated and expensive overhaul of their existing inventory and payment systems in order to offer consumers the option to utilize mobile devices to provide payment.
From the point of view of consumers, since existing mobile payment applications have not been widely accepted by merchants (at least in the United States), there does not seem to be a need to sign-up for and install such payment applications on their mobile devices. Furthermore, since many of the current mobile device applications are complicated to install and use in a retail environment, consumers have not been widely adopting such mobile device payment applications.
Thus, there is a need for systems, apparatus and processes for facilitating mobile device payments from the perspective of both merchants and consumers. In addition, there is a need for providing an intuitive and/or modified shopping experience for consumers shopping in a merchant's store who wish to use their mobile devices to both select items and to purchase those items.